The main issues for discussion include: how the WORLD EXPO 2015 in Milan can contribute to the global debate on sustainability and food and nutrition security; the post-2015 framework (and especially the EU’s further engagement in view of the United Nations General Assembly in September and the UN Secretary General’s report), the role of the private sector in development, and migration as a motor for development.

“It is important that the EU enters into discussions and plays an active role when a new global development agenda is being negotiated. Sweden’s high priority issues include human rights and democracy, gender equality, sexual and reproductive health and rights, freedom from violence and climate change,” says Minister for International Development Cooperation Hillevi Engström.

In recent years, the role of the private sector in development has been gaining increasing attention in the policy debate. This has resulted in a European Commission communication and Council conclusions on this issue.

In the margins of the meeting, the first-ever EU Trust Fund, to support to stabilisation and reconstruction of the Central African Republic, was signed.

The new Financial Regulation authorises the European Commission to set up and manage European trust funds under an agreement concluded with other donors. These trust funds are designed to mobilise various sources of EU financing and to collect contributions from the Member States and from donors from non-member countries.

EU trust funds have been specifically devised for crisis or post-crisis situations, where experience has shown that the weakness of the national or local administrations combined with a sudden increase in the number of donors leads to disorganisation and a fragmentation of the response of the international community, thus hampering an effective and sustainable contribution to the reconstruction of a country. This fragmentation will be avoidable in the future thanks to such trust funds.